


All she knew

by marginalia



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: femgenficathon, Gen, love letter to hufflepuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-15
Updated: 2006-01-15
Packaged: 2018-10-06 22:33:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10345995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginalia/pseuds/marginalia





	

**:: Helga Hufflepuff**

Everything is dark. They are surrounded by death, and those with the power to look ahead see only more to come. Even among the non-magic people there is great fear. Marauders attack from one direction and armies from another, and the only difference is that the armies are preceded by men who claim to be of one god and the marauders arrive without fanfare. All are men wholly blind to the magic around them. 

Those who can see clearly gather in shadow, dreaming, plotting, and finally creating. Helga's stomach twists with the discord even among their small group. In the venture she left behind friends who lacked the magic in their blood, and she mourned their loss as if they had died. Rowena takes her hand and she allows it, though she needs no pity. Helga knows herself fully; it is immaterial if others do not.

The debates are fierce, as they could be no other way between such strong personalities, but they resolve into harmony, finding strength in union if not in total agreement. The school is to be built unplottable and everchanging, and though Godric is quite certain that it is he who assuaged Salazar's concerns by diving into four houses, only Helga will ever know how close they came to separate schools and certain failure. Ideas are free; she never felt the need to write her name on hers. It is the success of all that matters, not of her alone, and everything is more than worth it when the school is completed and the students arrive, chattering through the halls. Helga knows her students immediately. She skips over the foolhardy, the cunning, the ones enchanted by their own intellect. Instead she takes the kind, the considered, the diplomats, and all the others whose gifts are not yet known to her nor even to themselves. She takes them and teaches them all she knows, loyalty and light, determination against the darkness, and how to stand together and be strong from within.

**:: Pomona Sprout**

Pomona drops to her knees, sinks her hands deep into the earth, and feels for the pulse, thinking not on how she appears. She's a funny little witch now and she suspects she'll still be one when she's old, if she makes it that far. The old, deep magic is so far out of fashion as to be nearly forgotten, but she cares little for style anyway, only for finding new sources of strength and power buried deep.

She finds it at last, the young end of a root. She mutters a Charm to the bush (current wisdom holds that they feel no pain, but better safe than sorry) and slices the root with a sharp knife at the precise phase of the moon. They'll use it in research and, she hopes, for healing. Pomona gives what she can.

When Dumbledore offers her the Herbology position she accepts, to the chagrin of her family. They had wanted greater things for their bright and talented girl, mediwitch or maybe even Healer someday. She waggles her fingers at them (dirt under the nails as always) and jokes of molding young minds. Soon after, when the specter of war begins creeping into their lives, they're grateful that she's safe at Hogwarts.

If not in the greenhouses, Pomona spends her free time in her rooms, reading Muggle detective novels and, on one disastrous occasion, trying her hand at writing them. A surprising number of students stop by for a chat and a toffee, and the Fat Friar says he expects she'll be made Head of House soon. "You've a gift for making them feel important," he says, "And they'll need that within themselves, for the world certainly isn't going to give it to them."

Pomona knows it to be true. She’s neither as daft nor as benign as she might seem, and she's heard the talk and seen the treatment as both student and professor. "He does not have to divide us," she thinks. "We divide ourselves."

**:: Hannah Abbott**

Hannah arrives at Hogwarts the same year as the famous Harry Potter. She goes all over chills in the Great Hall when her name is called first, and she can't hide her relief when the Sorting Hat calls out "Hufflepuff!" Her cousins have talked over the houses for years, but she thinks she'd rather not be noticed, thanks very much. Plus, she's certainly not evil, no matter what Ivy would have you think. 

It works out well. Professor Sprout is a comfortable sort of person, and Hannah has always been good at making friends. She does well in her classes and well with other people, and when she and Ernie are both made prefect at the start of their fifth year, her parents take them out to lunch to celebrate. They talk over all the news, and ask Hannah and Ernie many questions about Harry without ever listening to the answers. For once, Hannah thinks, they’re actually pleased that she’s not in Gryffindor. "They’re taking a horrible risk having a boy like that in the school," her mother says. Hannah glances sharply at Ernie, and he backs down from an argument for the first time in his life.

Without even having to discuss it, they meet in Hogsmeade and attend the meeting of what will become Dumbledore's Army. Hannah's seen what happens when people stand alone, and worse, what happens when they pretend nothing is coming. Hufflepuff has mourned Cedric, and now they look into the darkness with eyes open.

When Hannah's mother is killed in her sixth year, her father takes her out of school. She knows better than to fight him, and she begins carrying her Galleon again, just in case. She writes secretly to Ernie and Professor Sprout and tries to keep up on her schoolwork and practical defense. There's a small bag under her bed, packed and ready to go. 

Where she might be needed, she doesn't know, but when the false Galleon glows warm again she'll be there.


End file.
